Barrington, Fremd on course for divisional test

Barrington and Fremd won their Mid-Suburban West boys swimming dual meets Friday to stay unbeaten in the division.

It's almost a month until the next set of divisional meets, which will feature Fremd competing at Barrington on Friday, Jan. 15.

Barrington was in fine form against Conant, getting double wins from Mitch Gavars (200 IM, 500 free), Colin O'Leary (100 fly, 100 back) and John Lagoni (200 free, 100 free) in a 135-51 win.

Cole Aykroid had a terrific score (274.70) to win diving for Conant.

Fremd stayed perfect in the West by topping Hoffman Estates 140-38.

Individual winners for the Vikes included Arnas Maciunas (200 free), Nick Seroni (IM), Nick Nevins (50 free), Kenny Benjamin (100 free), Zach Mega (diving), Joe Mayer (fly), Yoochan Lee (back) and Robert DePau (400 free).

Andy Hobar picked up a win for the Hawks in the 100 breaststroke.

Rolling Meadows d. Elk Grove: The Mustangs remained unbeaten in the Mid-Suburban East and tied for the divisional lead with Prospect by topping the Grens 127-43.

Jake Pors and Josh Dellorto both won twice individually for Meadows. Pors was tops in the 200-yard IM (2:11.56) and 100 breast (1:08.94), and Dellorto claimed victory in the 200 free (1:48.60) and 100 back (54.71).

Elk Grove's Michael Banasik won the 100 free in 52.59

Palatine d. Schaumburg: In what may have been the final high school dual meet held in the current version of Palatine's pool, the Pirates came out with a 96-88 victory over the Saxons.

It came down to the final relay, as Schaumburg was able to take advantage of a Pirates lineup drastically weakened by illness. Seven regular varsity competitors were out of the lineup for Palatine, including junior Alex Bartosik and senior Jordan Kalina. And many of those who actually competed were still feeling effects of the illness swept through the team during the week, all of which led to Pirates coach John Schauble revising his lineup roughly every other hour during recent days.

"I just hope I never have a week like this again," Schauble said.

The resulting numbers challenge meant Palatine had only one entry in each of the relays. Those all won - and they had to, because Schaumburg was able to field a full meet lineup and has made marked improvement over last year.

"It comes down to starpower," said Schaumburg coach Paul DesRuisseaux, "and Palatine has that this year. We were able to take advantage in a few spots, but they still had enough to get the relays, and that's hard to overcome."

For the Saxons, it was still an opportunity to get some important measurements taken. DesRuisseaux has a far larger team than last year, and several of the leading competitors - for instance, Matt Kelland, Evan Wahlen and Sam Thomas - have fairly wide-ranging skill sets.

Among the interesting results against Palatine were Kelland performing well in the 100-meter free (58.65), and Andrew Jun taking second place in the 100 fly (1:18.01) - a race he hadn't competed in more than a year.

Wahlen came up with a solid effort in the 200 IM, while Tyler Reynolds took second in the 400 free (4:43.81) and 200 free (2:15.73). And the Saxons got a boost with Tyler Gustafson getting his first meet action of the season. DesRuisseaux expects further training to make a big difference for Gustafson.

"Dual meets are practice for the championship meets, and we got a little bit more accomplished on that front," said DesRuisseaux. "Today was about collecting a little bit more data for the down the road, because I'll have a lot more lineup decisions to make this year."

On this night, just enough of those Palatine stars were in place. Oleksiy Kornyichuk won the 200 IM (2:23.11) and 100 free (57.17), Marcus Carter-Buckman won the 50 free (25.54) and had two winning relay legs, Adam Smith won both the 200 free and the 400 free and Jacob Klein won the 100 back and had two relay legs. Senior Alex Adame won the 100 fly, and among the emerging bright lights for Palatine, consider sophomore Sean O'Brien - he won the 100 breast (1:20.37) and then anchored the winning 400 free relay.

Wheeling d. Buffalo Grove: The host Wildcats had the top finisher in all the swimming events in a 105-80 victory over the Bison in an MSL East matchup.

Seniors Jake Noel, Kyle Noel and Nate Reiff each won two individual races, and Justin Loquercio and Ricky Reeve also had victories.

Buffalo Grove got a win in diving from Jake Delattre (206.70).